Home Interior Design for More Joy: Cultivating Happiness through Decor

1. Introduction: What do a circus, an Art Gallery of flea market, and a partly share in common. Each of these locations is the bundle with possibilities for experiencing joy. We often believe that the feelings we experience are new to our thoughts and actions. And we forget that the places we are in can also change how we feel, especially when it comes to feeling Joy. Hi, my name is ana Marcu, enable, licensed architect, and I've worked over a decade. There's an in-house Architect. I'm currently running my own little Design Studio in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. My Architectural Design practice focuses on Home Design and hope well-being. And in my classes and sharing everything I know to help you create an environment that makes you happier, healthier, and more creative. In this class, I wish to explain how interior design can generate the feeling of joy at home. I'll start by defining joy, discussing when it typically occurs and identify the environments we're Joy often arises. They don't delve into finding the key characteristics of this joy-invoking environments which are abundance, surprise, playfulness, creativity, and connection. Each of these features will be explored in its own lesson with a wealth of interior design examples that demonstrate their potential to inspire joy. If you're keen on learning more about happiness oriented design, consider exploring my other class, maximizing Happiness at Home, Five Emotions to Consider in Home Design. The two classes together offer a holistic view of how interior design can foster positive emotions. I also encourage you to read the Book Joyful, the Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. Written by Ingrid Fetell Lee, this book is incredibly interesting. I have read it ten times easily and have underlined a lot of pages. So I highly recommended. You'll find a link of the book in the class description. I often get class ideas from the questions and comments by follow with me for my math, the announcements. And if you want to have your questions answered in a lesson or perhaps an entire class, make sure to press the follow button at the top side of your screen, right here. Alright, I hope you're excited to take this class. Is ready. Let's start the class 2. Joy: Welcome to the first lesson. Here I would like to talk about what joy is, when it, where it takes place, and how we can infuse this wonderful feeling into our Home Decor. Joy is described by the Cambridge dictionary, is a feeling of great happiness. But unlike the gentle peace and Karla associated with happiness, joy is more likely a firework, a quick, intense burst of extreme happiness. So when do we usually feel joy? We experienced joy where we accomplish major life goals after a challenging journey such as earning a degree. Joy can also arise from physical activities like playing sports or dancing. We might find joy in the company of friends. When somebody cracks are hilarious, unexpected joke. Creative endeavors such as painting, writing, playing a musical instrument, or even admiring others are, can also fill us with joy. But what is lesser known is that we often experience joy through our interaction with our environment in San types of spaces are more likely to generate joy than others. Let's explore a few. Childhood spaces like amusement parks and playgrounds, often bring joy. They encourage us to play, move, and engage with different objects and children helping us to discover new things about the world and ourselves. Spaces like circuses, fairs, and festivals also breed Joy. Here the emphasis is less on the physical movement and more on stimulating our senses through new tastes, sounds and smells. Above all, these places delight our eyes with objects it's never seen before, or unique artistic performances. These bright, lively locations provide a range of unique experiences, which often lead to join artistic spaces such as the opera house, theaters and add galleries, use creative expression and storytelling to elicit joy. Similarly, spaces were artists made and I, our studios and rehearsal spaces can also be joy tilde spaces. Places that encourage social interaction also tend to spark joy disjoint using elements in these settings often come from social engagement, the sensory pleasures of good food and music, and visually appealing Decor, connection with others and sensory stimulation often lead to positive feelings and joy. And lastly, naturally environments bring joy through elements like open space, sunlight, and the rich variety of colors and textures in plants and animals. These elements ignite our curiosity and engage all our senses simultaneously, providing many chances to experience all enjoy. By looking at all these spaces, I can see some patterns among them that seem to be connected with joy. Number one is places that offer an abundance of stimulations, different colors, textures, sound, fragrances and tastes have keep all our cells is active and engaged. Number two is joyous, often lead to creativity, whether he's enjoying someone else's creative output or creating something ourselves. Number three is joy tears to surface where we play when there's a sense of PFK-1 and from rules for his joy can happen while interacting with other people. Number five is joy can be found when there's an element of novelty or surprise that shifts our perspective. Now that we understand when and where joy typically appears, I wanted delve into these aspects individually to understand what interior design elements or setups might be able to bring a sense of joy into our homes. So our next topic is abundance 3. Abundance: Have you ever wondered what carnivals and circuses, flea markets and farmers markets, fan fairs and festivals have in common. These are spaces that gathering abundance of stimulation for all our senses, making us feel giddy and Joyful. This preference for abundance spaces seems to be rooted in biology. Throughout human history, our ancestors typically selected lush, thriving regions as homes. Before these over try inspires habitats. Additionally, spending time in a biodiverse environment seems to be good for our health. As people who spend time in parks with higher density and biodiversity experience greater sense of restoration and psychological well-being than those who spend time in less biodiverse parks. Creating a rich aesthetic of abundance in our homes is about engaging all our senses. Something I have talked about at length in my classes, room, fragrances, home, Interior Design for More well-being. Additionally, it's also about an aesthetic of surplus and maximalism. Here are several ideas on how to achieve this look, but remember that the final outcome is always a unique reflection of you. Number one is a technique called layering and as the word says, create multiple layers. Now normally the wound surface is a layer and the floor surfaces that layer. But when you're aiming for an abundance aesthetics, you add the more layers to one surface, meaning you don't have to stop to one carpet, but you layer two or three. You don't stop at five pillows on the couch, but maybe you add eight and these have different patterns. Why stop at one blanket when you can have a few covering the couch, adding some eye-catching patterns in the room. Textiles can really make the room more vibrant and exciting. Number two, color is your friend. If you don't have a budget to buy a tillers and recovers, you will also generate joy by using many bright colors in the few items you do have. This might mean painting a beautiful mural or painting a staircase. Perhaps painting the doors in a bright poppy color or using a fan wallpaper. Even something as simple as placing a large colorful bouquet of flowers in the middle of the room can contribute to an aesthetic of abundance, which leads me to the legs 0.31. Budget friendly way to emulate lushness and abundance in your space is by introducing a variety of plants layer, these two, placing taller plants towards the back and shorter ones in front to create a multi-layered look that adds to a feeling of abundance. Number four is spaces brimming with Art. This is could be architectural details, paintings, sculptures, collectibles, books or souvenirs. All these creative pieces combined to narrate a tale of abundance. The primary concept here is to minimize bare white was a fashion icon. Iris Apple famously said, More is more adolescents a board. So to recap, how can we create the aesthetic of abundance? Number one is the use layer textiles to introduce vibrant colors. Three, use a lot of plants for show off a diverse range of Art. Alright, in the next lesson, will delve into the concept of surprise and explore how it contributes to our experience of joy 4. Surprise: Many of our Joyful moments have an element of surprise incorporated in them. There is something delightful. We did not expect that momentarily shifts our perception and disrupts are sometimes negative thought patterns. It sparks curiosity, making us wonder what else might be different. In the real of interior design. The magic of surprise lies in transforming the familiar into familiar and turning the familiar into something surprisingly New. For example, this might be realized by integrating hidden rooms or functional spaces into your whole. This could be a concealed shelf behind a wall or a secret playroom for the kids. Alright, hidden door in a wall leading to a secret room or a home office behind that bookshelf or a door street to Nigeria, or through a closet. Hidden rooms not only provided joy factor, but also help to save space and maintain a neat appearance. Number two, our statements, ceilings. While most people focused on decorating walls and floors, the ceiling often gets overlooked. Crafting and engaging ceiling can add elements of both abundance and surprise. This could mean introducing bold colors, intricate patterns, fascinating textures, or even a captivating mural. You might consider extending the ceiling color onto the walls, turning typical blank canvas into a Surprising focal point for anyone entering the room. Number three, you can create a Joyful surprise by applying paint in a typical ways. You might paid only half a corridor, including the ceiling and the door is leaving the rest wide. Or consider extending the paint from a wall onto a piece of furniture. Coupled with a vibrant color, these techniques can truly inject an element of surprise. Interior space. Number four is add pride Hughes, to unexpected places such as inside closets and drawers, especially when you're a surrounding environment, leans towards neutral tones. These pops of color can create delightful moments of joy. Number five is elements of AC cycle Decor can really make the familiar, unfamiliar again, whether it's using all the windows as wall cladding to create more structure. Or painting over old paintings, turning coffee cups into wars causes, or hanging lights, or turning entirety sets into lamps. Diy can give familiar objects a new twist to create that element of surprise. That joy really requires. Keeping mind that these are just starting points. The aim is to design a space that surprises while also reflecting your unique style and personality. So let's recap what we learned in this lesson. Incorporate hidden elements like secret doors are rooms. Make a statement with your ceiling design. Use color in unconventional ways. Upcycled familiar objects into Surprising the core pieces. In our next session, we'll delve into the concept of playfulness in Design 5. Play: Play is one of people's earliest Joyful memories. However, as we mature, play is coaxed all of us with words like Quit playing around and joyous, slowly replaced by societal expectations of seriousness. Still, we harbor an inner child that occasionally peaks out during roller coaster rides or a friendly board game. But those moments are few and far between. So if we wore our most playful when we were kids, to bring back joy, we might need to draw out our sense of playfulness again. Then this lesson I wish to talk about two ways you can do that. Number one is nostalgia. First, we can awaken our inner child. Nostalgia. We might look at items that were part of joyful moments in our upbringing and consider incorporating them into our Home Decor. These items don't need to pervade your entire Decor. A few nostalgic patches can transform the ambience of a space. For example, playful lamps by three Kindle Joyful seaside memories. Lampshades like colorful visuals or balloon lamps are fixed to the ceiling, could take us back towards the light hole. Birthday celebration. Series balloons are synonymous with festivities. They immediately evoke happy memories. Similarly, so powerless can recall early pastimes or pike adventures adding to the joy. Now a soap bubble, speech bubbles and bubbles, or have one thing in common. And that is that they are round. As you remember from my other classes, like Home Interior Design for More calm route chips can make us feel safe, but they also have a Joyful quality about them. So using polka dots in small spaces and corridors that are normally dark in claustrophobic, can change the entire atmosphere and make them feel more Joyful. You can use polka dot wallpaper or if you're hesitant about covering an entire wall, if degree them into ART Pieces. Number two is the cute aesthetic. The second method to encourage playfulness, the use of the cute aesthetic. This aesthetic originates from our innate positive response to human babies. Keeping their prolonged dependency on adults, nature has wired us to be exceedingly attentive and kind to infants, making us highly perceptive to bury features. Research indicates that our brains rapidly detect infant features and looking at images of cute babies stimulates brain regions associated with reward and motivation. This responsiveness is universal applying to both genders and two parents and non parents alike. The typical cute features are round heads, large eyes, cute noses, round bodies, and symmetry. But these features don't attract as just in human babies. They also attract us in babies of other species and in innate objects as well. Such items could be zoomorphic chairs or rather than fluffy couches. Little aside cables that incorporate elements that look like toys. These propensity can also be transferred to toilet Decor. For example, pop the balloon dog. Remember, not everything in the room needs to follow the cute aesthetic. A few elements are sufficient to signal a playful atmosphere. In summary, to promote a sense of playfulness that sparks joy, consider incorporating nostalgia and embracing the cute aesthetic. While Cultivating a playful aesthetic can evoke nostalgic feelings. Limit also invite us to explore creativity in ways we haven't since childhood. Will delve more into this topic in the next lesson. 6. Creativity: Besides adding Decor elements that remind us over time we used to play, we should also create spaces that encourage us to play. One way we can exercise play as adults is by engaging in some form of creative pursuit or ART. So by designating spaces in our home, or we can color, paint, play music, or tinker with things, is a way to make sure that we create the conditions were joy is most likely to appear, as mentioned in my class, Home Interior Design for better habits, It's important to have a space dedicated to our creative practice. Because the more we associate a space with an activity and a certain emotion, the more likely we are to do is creative practice. Meaning that if we manage to find the physical space in our whole for our creative practice, we will also find more space in our mind for it. So finding that a little bit of space that we can dedicate to our creativity in our home is very important. Now creativity can be expressed in countless ways at home. From how you solve problems, how you organize your space, how you tell stories to your children, or even how you arrange your bookshelf. You might express your creativity through cooking or gardening, decorating your homework, DIY projects, the possibilities are truly endless. However, in this lesson, we're focusing on discovering space for your artistic or creative pursuit, even if you believe you don't have any room for it. So here are a few suggestions for creating workspaces, but I hope will inspire more joy in your home. Crafting your workspace or a studio doesn't require a big area. It can fit into a small niche. This could be a small space carved out when you enclose a balcony to expand your home. Even if it's just 1 m long. Perhaps it used to transform a closet into a workspace, creating what is now commonly referred to as a cloth is, if you'd rather not relinquish your closet space, you could incorporate it into your bookshelf. Your own space could also be a flexible Walmart, a table that you get to pull down an occasion like this one or like this one. It can simply be just a literal corner in your home, just for a, your computer, if that is all you need. Finding the space for your creative practice is possible no matter how small the space you live in is. Some solutions, however, might require a bit more creativity than others. I just want to encourage you to designate an area in your home exclusively for your creative practice that you can keep and develop a creative ritual. Coming back to your creative ritual again and again, is what is going to make joy most likely to appear. To recap in this lesson, we learned number one at designated area in your whole, but specifically for your artistic endeavors, will at maintaining a regular creative ritual. And number two, regardless of the size of your living space, you can always carve out a corner for creativity. Great, Let's move to our next lesson where we'll discuss the significance of creating spaces for social connections. Stay tuned. 7. Connection: Joy, as we often find, thrives in the companionship of loved ones. Shared laughter, deep conversations, mutual hobbies are simply the warmth of a hug can evoke profound joy. Its in our everyday moments sipping tea or coffee, celebrating birthdays and graduations during visits from or to family. As we engage with those we cherish, we're bound to encounter joy. Therefore, if we wish to optimize our spaces for More Joy, we should aim to design homes that foster interactions that make groups of people feel comfortable and welcomed. But before addressing the physical aspects of our home, let's first go front potential mental hurdles. Or recall my mother during my childhood, often hesitating to Let me write friends over, feeling worried about how our Home looked. It's helped. My most cherished memories are from parties where we'd all be huddled together in the kitchen, talking our heads off, just enjoying each other's company. And I can't remember what any of the furniture and looked like. Moreover, acidity, five-year long Harvard study, confirms that social connections are crucial for our overall happiness and health. As Professor Robert Bollinger says, good relationships keep us happier and healthier. People who are more socially connected to family, friends, and community are happier, physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected. Therefore, fostering social interactions is not only integral to experiencing joy, but also to stay healthy and leading a wholesome life. So let's look at some possibilities in which we could make your space welcoming to more people. Perhaps you're not particularly proud of your home, but do you have a garden or an accessible outdoor area like a balcony or a patio. These spaces can be perfect for socializing. For those with limited space, consider multi-functional furniture that can adapt your needs, but an extendable dining table can be compact for the US and enlarged for guests. Site they use can double as additional serving stations and the boxes can serve as temporary seating. Consider modular seating options like Ottomans, proofs and floor cushions that can be reconfigured based on the number of guests and are easily store the way when not in use. Above all, if you wish to spend money henry furnishing parts of the house. Focus on enhancing areas like your kitchen and dining space. If you find in beautiful and they store a sense of pride, more likely to invite other people over. The more beautiful and comfortable you make this spaces, the more confident you feel about hosting. In summary, social connections are not just key to joy, but they significantly impact our overall health by crafting spaces in our homes where we feel at ease, inviting people over, we create more opportunities for invaluable social interactions. And subsequently joy 8. Class Project: Class Project. It's been conclude our journey in this course, I'd like to leave you with a few parting thoughts. Imagine joy is a brilliant confetti burst, an ephemeral, intense moment. It's a personal, subjective experience unique to each of us. What sparks immense joy in one-person by only kindle a gentle warmth in another. Additionally, our census ever adaptive, can grow accustomed to our surroundings over time. This natural phenomenon is known as hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation is a concept in psychology that suggests humans have a tendency to return to relatively stable levels of happiness despite major positive or negative events of life changes. This happens because as we repeatedly experienced something, we become gradually accustomed to it. And it no longer provides the same level of pleasure or satisfaction. This doesn't mean we can't sustain happiness, but rather that maintaining an elevated level of happiness requires continual growth, change and adaptation. Understanding hedonic adaptation can be particularly beneficial in the context of designing your living space. By regularly updating and altering your environment, you can continue to introduce new stipulate that will bring you joy, helping you to combat the effects of hedonic adaptation. For our class project, I invite you to share a photo over Home Decor item that fills your heart with joy. Tell us why it does so. I'm truly excited to see our class project section turning to a joy filled gallery. Additionally, though, it's not required for completing this course, I've put together a worksheet to further deepen your understanding of the relationship between joy and home design. You can find a link for this free download in the class description. If this journey spark your curiosity and you'd like to explore more on the theme of happiness. I have another course called maximizing Happiness at Home, Five Emotions to Consider in Home Design, which I believe you will find equally enriching. Alright, I hope you enjoyed this lesson. See you in the next class. 9. Final Thoughts: Congratulations. You have made it to the end of the class. I hope you learned some new things and already feel inspired to apply them. If you wish to expand your knowledge even further on this topic, I encourage you to go to my steel share teacher profile. There you'll find more classes on complimentary topics which I have no doubt you will love. If you're craving even more, I'd highly recommend that you explore the wealth of resources available on my website and within the attached bonus resources PDF. There you discover more classes, book suggestions, and free complimentary worksheets. Particularly, the worksheets will help you deepen your understanding of the topics discussed in the class and identify the changes that will have the biggest impact on your personal well being. If you're interested in more freebies or live classes, I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter. Each Sunday, I send out home design ideas, straight to your inbox, all tailor to promote a home that will help you become happier, healthier and more creative. You'll be kept in the loop about my monthly zoo calls and special events. Plus, I have big free resources, book recommendations, and I'll let you know about upcoming classes. If you like this class, I would appreciate the review. It tells Skillshare that you like my class and it encourages other people to discover my work. Please use the discussion section to let me know your thoughts and questions about the class. I'd be happy to help you clarify any concepts you do not understand. Additionally, if you leave a class project, I will be able to help you with more personalized and in depth support. So I encourage you to share your home design progress with me. All right. We are at the end, see you in the next class.